Automatic swimming pool cleaners are widely used to relieve swimming pool owners of the time-consuming and arduous task of hand-operated vacuuming of underwater pool surfaces. Such manual task, which typically involved the use of long extension handles and clumsy manipulation of a water-suction head held under water and at a distance, have largely been made a thing of the past by automatic systems. In recent decades, many automatic swimming pool cleaners of various types have been available and in wide use around the world.
A typical automatic swimming pool cleaner has a suction head including a housing, a chamber open at its lower side, and a pivotable connector to which a long flexible hose is attached to allow movement of the swimming pool cleaner in the pool. The hose typically extends toward a remote pump which causes water flow from along the pool bottom surface, through the chamber and into the hose, removing dirt and debris from the bottom surface of the pool. The flow of water caused by the pump is harnessed in various ways to cause movement of the swimming pool cleaner.
While automatic swimming pool cleaners are highly beneficial, there are times, regardless of which cleaner may be in use for automatic cleaning, when it may be considered desirable for various reasons to engage in some manual cleaning, particularly of limited areas of underwater pool surfaces. It may be desirable, for example, to engage in manual cleaning in order to overcome a specific problem, such as a particularly bad deposit of algae, or to clean an area where dirt or debris has just been deposited. It some cases it may be considered desirable to complete an underwater surface area without waiting for the automatic pool cleaner to reach such area.
In some cases, it may be desirable to clean certain underwater surfaces which are not reachable by the automatic pool cleaner. An example of such unreachable surfaces would be the underwater surfaces of a hot tub or spa which is adjacent to the swimming pool, as is often the case. Another example may be the surfaces of underwater steps in the swimming pool itself.
Because of the nature of various automatic pool cleaners, adapting such cleaners for use in manual cleaning would be problematic at best. Certain pool cleaners have wheels, tracks and/or various other drive mechanisms which engage the pool bottom surface, making it unreasonable and impractical to adapt them for manual use. Certain other pool cleaners, because they are rather tightly held against the pool bottom surface during operation, could not be effectively manipulated even if otherwise adapted for manual use. Various automatic pool cleaners are also unreasonably bulky and heavy to even consider adaptation for manual use.
Furthermore, typical manual pool cleaning suction heads are devoid of powered scrubbing devices. Such devices typically depend on the suction flow of water and/or mechanical force provided by manipulation of such devices by the user--through the handle. Thus, manual pool cleaning devices are often less effective than might be desired and can require considerable operator exertion.
There has been a clear need for improved swimming pool cleaning apparatus, and it is such need to which the invention described herein is addressed.